Friday, October 2, 2009

Through the summer, AT&T customers have been grumbling about dropped calls and lost data. As we reported just a few weeks ago, AT&T was slowly starting to admit there may be a few problems, with most reports blaming data-hogging iPhones for maxing out the AT&T network. Sadly, the cure is not a different phone model, but to just leave.

An article in our local media highlights what some AT&T customers are doing, and how the carriers are responding. T-Mobile credited at least one AT&T expatriate $150 to help pay the AT&T Early Termination Fee. Another unhappy AT&T camper got a $20 monthly credit from AT&T while they muddle through their network upgrades, which, in this case, means taking entire cell sites off the air for a significant period.

Neither AT&T, T-Mobile or any other carrier will confirm they are actually helping any customers with credits and discounts, but if you are tired of dropped calls and data with AT&T, there seems to be room for negotiation, and you don't know what you'll get until you ask. Don't expect a quick offer, you may need to be persistent. And keep in mind, AT&T will eventually work out these problems and you might be going through the ETF process all over again to come back. If you don't have luck making your escape, we list ways to cancel your contract, which may still require some time commitment.

5 comments:

William
said...

Even At&t's 2G networks are suffering from smartphone/iPhone surges. When talking with other At&t subscribers in the 2G coverage area i'm surrounded by, their calls constantly drop, or are marred by heavy static/electronic garbling. When I talk to non-At&t subscribers, I don't have any trouble. It's a shame that At&t has let their network go down so quickly. Those who want a plain regular phone and enjoy At&t's service can't get the performance they deserve because of people checking Facebook and Espn on their iPhones every ten minutes. I am sure that At&t will begin working on these issues and get them solved within a reasonable amount of time, but for now it's not looking great. Why so many people continue to switch to At&t to get the iPhone, I can't explain. Get an iPod touch and keep your other network/phone.

Even with the issues I think the now 5 day old nationwide T-Mobile Sidekick outage takes the prize for data issues this year. T-Mobile has been working hard to fix the problem and has offered customers who called in 1 to 3 months of data credit depending on the severity of their situations but once again unless you stay on top of the forums you had no clue that this was a known issue or the true reach of the situation. I have ran across countless people who just thought their phone needed the battery removed to reset and are now at almost a week with no contacts, calendar, etc. My point is that it seems that AT&T is not the only one who is not publicly addressing their issues and we as the users deserve better from our companies. None of the big 4 can say their not guilty of this.

Since my comment on October 3, I have run across several forums discussing the problems with T-Mobile. And I couldn't agree more, we the consumers do deserve better. I was a T-Mobile customer for four years, and recently had to switch to Nextel because of my job. I hated it; T-Mobile's customer service was always really good, and I never had much trouble with their service. Anytime I had a problem, they were quick to cut my bill in half, or offer me free messaging/data services for a month to three months. My issue with them was always roaming, and it never seemed to get resolved for the four years I had service with them. Every so often, my phone would go bezerk when trying to roam. It's sad that the four largest carriers have so many issues. Now with Nextel, I get the message delays, but PTT makes up for it rather well.

It's sad to see bad things happen to T-mobile, but roaming in our part of the country is not one of them. T-Mobile phones surprise me how well they roam. I can believe there are areas where that's not the case, and I bet it's not their fault.

Bill, I got very good roaming coverage where I live with T-Mobile until At&t acquired Centennial. Once that happened, I had issues that would come up from time to time. Prior to that, I had a glitchy handset that they were reluctant to replace. I regret not having service with them anymore, but cannot afford to have two lines.

We have reviewed each page of their web site, read all the disclosures and added up their plans. We just don't see how Xfinity Mobile ...

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